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Statistics

Articles & Reports Statistics

The following are collections of statistics from a variety of sources.

NIDRR Chartbook Summary Seattle University Law Review Disabilities Statistics Abstracts Toronto HRDC Report

• Quotable statistics in the press release from the U.S. Census Bureau at Anniversary of Americans with Disabilities Act (July 26).

• You can get statistics from the latest (and any) US census at http://www.census.gov/. Do a search on disability or click on "Subjects t A to Z" and then click "D". Scroll down to Disability Data (or just click http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/disability/disability.html). Several links to pertinent articles and data. Statistics are also available at the following sites.

• National Center for the Dissemination of Disability Research: http://www.ncddr.org/

• The National Center for the Dissemination of Disability Research funds the Disability Statistics Center at U of California San Francisco: http://dsc.ucsf.edu/UCSF/

• The National Center for Health Statistics: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/

• The report "Falling Through the Net: Toward Digital Inclusion," presented by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration: http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/fttn00/Falling.htm#61. The section deals specifically with Internet access and computer use among people with disabilities.

• An excellent source of statistics (the percent of incidence of various disabilities in different sectors of the population) is the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) Chartbook. For a downloadable PDF file, see http://www.infouse.com/disabilitydata/workdisability.html

• Based on employment statistics for people with disabilities, employment is lowest for those with mobility restrictions. Using statistics from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), 32.1 million working-age people (or 18.7% of the population ages 15 to 64) have a disability. The SIPP used a definition of disability consistent with the ADA. For more information, see the summary of the NDIRR Chartbook.

• The Seattle University Law Review provides additional statistics. See Seattle University Law Review, Vol. 20, Fall 1997, No. 2: Abstract for highlights.

• Excellent series of abstracts with some very sobering statistics is available from http://dsc.ucsf.edu/abs/abixtxt.htm See Disabilities Statistics Abstracts for highlights.

• The Will to Work: An Employment-Related Service Needs Assessment for Persons with Disabilities in Metropolitan Toronto. This is an impressive piece of work by the Toronto branch of the Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC). The basic thrust of the report was to identify service needs for those with disabilities in the Toronto Metropolitan area, identify existing services, and chart a course to increase services as required to meet the need. See Toronto HRDC Report for highlights of this report.

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NIDRR Chartbook Summary

According to the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), of the 18.7% of 18.7% of the population between ages 15 to 64) who have a disability, 10.0% had a "non-severe" disability; the remaining 8.7% had a severe disability.

Employment is lower for people with a disability and much lower for those with a severe disability.

Nearly 2/3 of all work disabilities are severe.

The highest rates of work disability are concentrated in the South.

Education is an equalizer; that is, labor force participation increases with education level more sharply for those with a work disability than for those without.

More than 3/4 of working-age people with disabilities who are not currently working want to work. Apply that percentage to the numbers cited above, and that represents a large cadre of highly motivated potential workers. In other words, hiring those with disabilities should be viewed less as a social responsibility and more as a wise business decision—leveraging a resource that has gone largely untapped, to the mutual gain of the employees and the employers.

For both men and women, median monthly earnings are lower for people with a disability, and even lower for those with a severe disability, than they are for those with no disability.

The 7 chronic conditions that cause work limitations are as follows:

Chronic Condition	Percentage (%)
Back disorders	21.1
Heart disease	10.9
Arthritis	8.3
Respiratory diseases	5.6
Mental disorders	4.9
Lower extremity impairments	4.5
Diabetes	3.3

Native Americans report the highest percentage of limitation in work due to chronic conditions: 17.3%, or 262,000 people. Blacks are second: 14.4%, or 2.7 million people.

As educational attainment goes up, work disability goes down.

The vast number (85.4%) of clients who are rehabilitated successfully through the Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) system are placed in competitive work: 60% of them work a full work week.

To do their job effectively, 69% of people with disabilities do not need special equipment or technology. For the 26% who do need special equipment or technology, for the most part the technology is readily available and relatively inexpensive.

An excellent glossary and bibliography are provided at the end of the NIDRR Chartbook.

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Seattle University Law Review, Vol. 20, Fall 1997, No. 2: Abstract

An abstract at http://www.law.seattleu.edu/lawrev/ for Vol. 20, Fall 1997, No. 2, says that nearly one in seven Americans has some type of disability. The ADA covers both mental and physical disabilities, but a person confined to a wheelchair typically experiences different forms of discrimination than a person with a learning disability. "This Comment is a guide for both employers and employees in successfully complying with the ADA's provisions as they relate to persons with learning disabilities."

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Disabilities Statistics Abstracts

• ADA defines a person with a disability as one with "a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual."
• A major life activity means functions such as caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, working, and participating in community activities.
• Physical impairments include "any physiological disorder or condition, cosmetic disfigurement, or anatomical loss affecting the major body systems of the human organism."
• Mental impairments include "any mental or psychological disorder, such as mental retardation, organic brain syndrome, emotional or mental illness, and specific learning disabilities."
• Under these definitions, the ADA legislation cited 43 million Americans as having disabilities.
• The top 3 types of disabilities, statistically, are orthopedic, arthritis, and heart disease.
• Injuries cause 13.4% of disabilities.
• Together, disorders and injuries account for 73.3& of disabilities; impairments make up the remaining 26.7%
• Under disorders and injuries, the top 2 (at 17.2 and 16.7%, respectively) are diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue and diseases of the circulatory system.
• Under impairments, orthopedic impairments cover more than half (14.1% out of the 26.7%). The other half are divided equally among several types, including visual and hearing impairments, learning disabilities and mental retardation, paralysis, deformities, amputation or loss of limbs, and speech.
• The 3 most common conditions causing activity limitation are heart disease (13.0%); deformities, orthopedic impairments, and disorders of the spine or back (12.6%); and osteoarthritis and allied disorders (8.3%).
• Only 27.8% of working-age people with work disabilities have jobs, compared to 76.3% of those without disabilities.
• Statistically, employability decreases as the severity of the disability increases.
• Employability statistics of minorities with disabilities are even lower.
• Native Americans have the highest rate of disability of any racial/ethnic group, while blacks have the highest rate of severe disability.
• 30.0% of people with work disabilities live below the poverty level, compared to 10.2% of those without work disabilities.
• 72.9% of single women with disabilities who have children under 6 live below the poverty level.
• Recent trends in earnings for people with disabilities are not encouraging.
• Many people with severe work disabilities rely on Social Security as a primary source of income.

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Toronto HRDC Report

The study concluded that:

• There is a high percent incidence of disabilities
• Those with the disabilities have a low percent of employment
• Some form of equalization is needed
• There are inequities in the availability of services, especially for those with severe disabilities
• Persons with disabilities comprise a largely untapped resource for employers...they tend to be highly motivated and therefore represent a real potential benefit to an employer
• Employers lack knowledgeability in this area

The study contains graphic exhibits depicting statistics on the incidence of disabilities. They are best viewed in color on the report's Web site.

Articles & Reports Statistics

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